Here’s a jaunty debrief from PopTech, a notoriously hard conference to describe, that always features obscenely talented entrepreneurs and changemakers.

In this episode, Kwaku Aning, Sarah Rose Siskind, and I share some of the great stories and great vibes from this year's conference, including:

• FetusGPT, Sarah’s madcap experiment to train an AI on everything her soon-to-be-born baby is hearing from inside the womb
• Why Colossal Biosciences is de-extincting the dire wolf and other “charismatic animals” (dodos and woolly mammoths are in the works) — and why de-extinction is an important goal that will help us solve lots of other problems along the way
• “Shade-as-a-Service”, a new idea from climate champion and mushroom farmer Eben Bayer, the founder of MyForest Foods (maker of MyBacon, the top-selling non-meat bacon). The idea is to launch giant parasols into the atmosphere to cool the Earth below
• Why Tibet and Taiwan are so key to the tech industry (not to mention global stability)
• An exercise, from inventor and investor Pablos Holman, that could help you focus on what matters most to you — and could help you ignore the junk that’s clawing for your attention

Featured voices:

• Sarah Rose Siskind, science and comedy writer and the founder of Hello SciCom, a STEM communications agency
• Kwaku Aning, professional connector, founder/principal of RetroFuturism Consulting, and, according to Sarah, “homecoming king of PopTech”
• Me (Dan Blumberg) — I’m the host of CRAFTED. and the founder of Modern Product Minds. HMU if you want to build something great. I love building from zero to one.

And if you please…

• Share with a friend! Word of mouth is by far the most powerful way for podcasts to grow
• Subscribe to the CRAFTED. newsletter at crafted.fm
• Share your feedback! I’m experimenting with new episode formats and would love your honest feedback on this and other episodes. Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com or DM me on LinkedIn
• Sponsor the show? I’m actively speaking to potential sponsors for 2026 episodes. Drop me a line and let’s talk.
• Get psyched!… There are some big updates to this show coming soon!

A quick debrief from Climate Week / UN General Assembly week, including:

• How seemingly normal everything felt, in spite of [...you know...] everything
• AI will destroy the climate?
• AI will solve climate change?
• AI will kill us all? (If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies)
• A call for AI Red Lines
• The UN takes action on AI
• A plea to “stay in the game” (even though it's hard)

Joining me from New York are:

• Kwaku Aning, creates strategic partnerships that drive meaningful change
• Lendy Krantz, collaboration strategist, helps companies reimagine their operations in physical and virtual environments

And you can join all three of us (hi, I’m your host Dan Blumberg!) from October 7-9th at PopTech in Washington DC. It’s a great conference and I’ll be interviewing many of the technologists and futurists who will be on stage for future episodes of the podcast. If you’d like a discount code, DM me on LinkedIn or email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

What’s up with “the MIT study” that claims 95% of all AI pilots fail? Did anyone actually read it beyond the headline? (Dan did—and he has thoughts.)

Also: the good, the bad, and the quietly dystopian side of putting AI in kids’ classrooms.

And… are robots really the thing Melania should be worrying about?

That’s just some of what Kwaku Aning, return guest and founder of Retrofuturism, and I get into on this very lively, very bubbly, and very uncrafted edition of CRAFTED.

More new episodes—and a major update to the show—are coming soon. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app and get the newsletter at crafted.fm

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Come hang with us at PopTech

Come hang with us and see live recordings of CRAFTED., at PopTech!

PopTech is a “curator of what’s next” and this will be my third time at the conference. I keep going back because I get new ideas, new inspiration, and really get to know the attendees and speakers. This year’s talk’s include “A possibilist’s guide to the future”, “AI: In service to human(ity),” “Vibe coding for human rights” and more.

To see the full list of talks and speakers, see PopTech.org and if you’ve never been before and would like a discount, DM me on LinkedIn or email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

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Referenced in this episode:

• MIT study on AI profits rattles tech investors (Axios)
• Full 26-page MIT study (Scribd)
• AI Is a Money Trap (Ed Zitron)
• The Fever Dream of Imminent Superintelligence Is Finally Breaking (Gary Marcus in the NYTimes)
• How Chatbots and AI Are Already Transforming Kids’ Classrooms (Bloomberg)
• Alpha School – the “AI-Powered Private School”
• Melania Trump Has a Warning for Humanity: ‘The Robots Are Here’ (NYTimes)

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Like this episode?
You’ll also like my conversation with Khan Academy’s Chief Product & Learning Officer on what happens when AI becomes your tutor—and what it means for the future of learning.